The present invention relates to improvements in a medical treatment station e.g. a lithotripter, and here particularly to the protection of a patient while situated on a rest or other suitable support in preparation for as well as during treatment with medical equipment for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes. The protection refers specifically to unwanted, undesired and unintended hitting of the patient by any movable and actually moving equipment which is to be positioned vis a vis the patient. The invention specifically relates to the art of lithotripsy, i.e. the comminution of concrements in the body of human beings by means of shock wave generators wherein a shock wave is to be produced in specific (geometric) relation to the patient so as to effect the comminution. Any positioning here requires that the equipment be moved in relation to a rest or support for the patient or that support with the patient on it be moved or both. Such relative motion conceivably occurs during different phases of the overall operation.
Broadly speaking, the situation is as follows. Lithotripsy, i.e. the comminution of concrements, is carried out in that the patient is placed on a rest or support or the like shown, for example, by Chaussy in his habilitation thesis, "extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, New aspects in the treatment of kidney stone disease", Karber Basel, Munchen, New York etc. 1982, see also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,705,026 and 4,669,483. The rest used in lithotripsy is positioned in physical, spatial relation to diagnostic or therapeutic equipment used for that purpose. The attending physician(s) or other medical personnel will provide for the proper positional adjustment, either manually or automatically through motor control, depending on the sophistication of the system involved. However, the situation is a delicate one. On the one hand, the positioning of the patient vis-a-vis the equipment or vice versa is the modality by means of which the focal point of concentrating shock waves is positioned in relation to the interior of a concrement to be comminuted which is, of course, inside the body of the patient and is visible only by x-ray or ultrasonics.
During positioning, physical impacting of the patient by the equipment must be avoided particularly in cases where adjustment is carried out through motor driven equipment; any changes in the position of the equipment must not cause undue pain to the patient upon engagement. It should be noted, however, that the equipment as it is being positioned is necessarily in physical contact with the body of the human. That contact is part of establishing a transmission path for shock waves which is so to speak spatially isolated and even though the equipment by necessity has to engage to be in contact with the patient's body there must by a physical isolation in the sense of avoiding accident producing impacts. The situation may seem to be not critical if the patient is already under anesthesia, but injury must be avoided of course and there is a tendency in the development of lithotripsy to reduce or do away entirely with the need for anesthesia, at least general anesthesia.